Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Review

Unlike the Resident Evil series, CAPCOM’s other foray into zombie-focused games, the Dead Rising franchise, hasn’t seen the same level of success despite getting a loyal following of hardcore fans. Following the fourth entry in the series released back in 2016, photojournalist Frank West seemed to have joined Regina from Dino Crisis and Ryu from Breath of Fire in the graveyard of forgotten CAPCOM’s characters, and with the protracted silence on the franchise, it really looked like Dead Rising was done for good. That was not the case. In 2024, the Japanese company confirmed that the first entry in the series would be rising from its grave as Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, a “deluxe” remaster that vastly enhances the experience of the iconic original with tons of quality of life improvements but that sadly fails to provide an acceptable visual upgrade.

Being a remaster, the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster story is the same as the original game’s. Set in 2006, the game stars the aforementioned photojournalist Frank West as he travels to the town of Willamette, Colorado, after having been alerted by one of his sources that something strange was happening in the town. On September 19th, the man could see with his own eyes while flying over Willamette in a helicopter what was happening in the otherwise completely unremarkable town: a zombie infestation. After getting dropped onto the Willamette Parkview Mall’s helipad, Frank West asks the helicopter’s pilot, Ed, to return in 72 hours.

During these three days, Frank West will get to meet multiple survivors, including DHS agents Brad and Jessie, Isabella and Carlito, who seem to have an idea of why the whole town is overrun by an endless horde of zombies, as well as psychopaths, survivors who completely lost it and need to be put down as quickly as possible, and confront the zombie horde with every weapon at his disposal.

Despite the years that have passed since the original’s release, the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster story is as enjoyable as it has ever been, not only thanks to its excellent pacing, which piles mystery upon mystery until the eventual reveals, but also thanks to the fact that players need to be at the top of their game to experience it all in a single playthrough. As the clock almost never stops ticking, and every main story and optional objective has a time limit, players will often be forced to make some hard choices during a playthrough and, at least on the first, may have to ignore some of the survivors to be able to continue following the main cases, which represent the main storyline.

With multiple endings to boot, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a game made for multiple playthroughs like the original, which I feel most players will complete one after the other thanks to its relatively short playtime (around 7/8 hours for a complete run of the basic 72-hours mode) and the arcade-like nature of the gameplay, which is way better than the original thanks to the many changes and improvements featured in the remaster.

If you have played the original game, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster will immediately feel like a massive step up in pretty much every way. The remaster features new controls, which, to be honest, may take a while to get used to for those who played through the original multiple times. Frank’s skills have been revamped to be easier to use, especially the Flying Dodge skill, which is more useful than ever thanks to these changes, and the ability to move while aiming, another tweak that vastly improves the gameplay. The survivor’s AI, which was abysmally bad in the original, has slightly been enhanced and will no longer be dead weight in most situations, although there are still times when they do dumb stuff, get surrounded by zombies, and get left behind. Even the photo scoring system has been improved, making it easier for players to take high-scoring pictures to level up more quickly. Sadly, loading screens still separate certain mall areas, and not making exploration seamless feels like a missed opportunity. This was one of the changes that could have brought the experience to new heights.

Even so, all the other changes help the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster gameplay to emerge from that of other modern zombie games, helping its unique features shine. As the game is entirely set inside a mall, the experience features some hilarious situations, as Frank can use pretty much everything he can find to survive. As such, you will often find yourself using some very unconventional weapons, such as CDs and dishes, shopping carts, toys, and mannequin parts, as well as more deadly items like chainsaws, sledgehammers, and even katanas. Every weapon, like in the original, comes with a durability value, so it is not possible to rely on a single weapon, as it will eventually break.

Much like in the original, the first few hours of Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster won’t be particularly enjoyable. Frank’s abilities are limited at low levels, and the lack of knowledge of the mall’s layout and weapons capabilities will make it difficult to survive the zombie horde and rescue survivors. But here lies the beauty of the experience. After learning more about the mechanics and weapons and learning a few useful skills, everything starts clicking, revealing the arcade nature of the experience mentioned above, which requires the players to start playing perfectly, planning each survivor rescue and each optional psychopath encounter so that everything is completed in the shortest amount of time possible to complete the main cases as well, which can be missed and force the player to continue playing until the rescue helicopter comes without a main story to follow, or quit the campaign altogether and start a new run with Frank’s current level and stats.

All this may sound like a chore on paper, but it still is an engaging gameplay loop in Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, just like in the original. Setting up the craziest scenarios for a high-quality photo worth a lot of PPs used for leveling up, finding new ways to deal with zombies, helping survivors with some of their wacky requests, discovering new shortcuts and secrets around the mall suck the player in, and only let go after tens of hours.

While Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster definitely delivers when it comes to gameplay, it doesn’t quite achieve the same in terms of visuals. While it’s a step up over the dated original in some aspects, the remaster doesn’t look as good as every other game powered by the RE Engine. Character models are fine but somewhat feel off due to some artistic choices and stiff animations. The locations around the mall are decently detailed, but the lighting makes them look a little dull, sometimes even off. It almost feels like there’s some sort of greenish filter that makes everything look muddy.

This is mostly noticeable during the game’s startup, as the screen isn’t as black as it should be, so much so that I thought it was my monitor that was acting up, which wasn’t the case. It’s a shame because this actually makes the remaster look worse than the remaster released in 2016 with its more vibrant and pleasing colors. I even tried changing the color space, but it did not address the issue.

The performance also leaves something to be desired. During a benchmark session comprising a round trip of the entire mall starting from the security room, my system (i7-13700F, RTX 4080, 32 GB RAM) ran the game at 4K resolution, DLSS Quality and the settings shown in the screenshots below at an average of 161 frames per second, 57 FPS 1% low, which was caused by some stuttering here and there which mostly occurred when leaving the security room and traversing the mall. The game also supports NVIDIA DLSS 3 Frame Generation, which caused some stuttering issues during select cutscenes and desync between visuals and audio but worked mostly fine during gameplay. I also noticed more stuttering during gameplay with Frame Generation, but that may have been a coincidence, as stuttering is not a rare occurrence even without it.

Besides gameplay and visual changes, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster brings other changes, such as re-recorded dialogues with new voice actors. The new actors do a very good job, but it is undeniable that some of the nostalgic charm of the original was lost in the process. Some other changes, including removing certain elements no longer deemed acceptable, will be hard to stomach for some, but, at the end of the day, they don’t impact the experience in any major way.

With its gameplay improvements, the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is more than worth a play for both returning series fans and newcomers. The former will appreciate the gameplay changes that finally make the game’s unique formula shine, while the latter, if they power through the first few hours of the game, will find themselves sucked into a gameplay loop that is more engaging than ever. It is a shame that the visuals are unpleasant at times. If they were of the same quality as every other RE Engine-powered game released so far, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster would undoubtedly have been among the best remasters ever released.

PC version tested. Review code provided by the publisher.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is a solid remaster that enhances the original game with some welcome gameplay and quality-of-life improvements that go a long way to make the experience more enjoyable than ever. However, the remaster falters in the visual department, with dull colors that pale in comparison to the vibrant visuals of the original. Still, there’s plenty to like in the Deluxe Remaster, as Frank West’s journey to Willamette remains as engaging as ever, though the mostly faithful recreation of the original gameplay feels a little dated compared to its sequels.

Buy for $49.99 from Amazon

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